taryn's baby quilt and more

My coworker, Tara, is just a few years younger than I am.  (Uh oh, I'm gonna date myself!)  She found out earlier this year she is going to be a grandma.  We both agree we're too young for this, but her daughter, Taryn, is not all THAT young.

I don't know Taryn well.  We could recognize each other in a lineup and all that, but I couldn't tell you much about her.  But as quilters know well, sometimes it's about more than just the quilt recipient.  Sometimes it's about the others around them.  This is exactly one of those times.

Almost immediately the Preppy the Whale pattern came to mind.  It's been on my bucket list/Pinterest board for quite some time, just waiting for the right excuse.  This seemed to be it!

I went out and purchased, washed and ironed a background fabric.  And then procrastinated the start.  It is directional.  I can do that.  But also, I just wasn't sure it was what I wanted to do.

Finally I decided I needed a different background and went out for more fabric.  (I knew the first choice would work well on the back, so no real loss there.)  I chose a white-on-white.  I may be crazy...not only is white dangerous for a baby, but trying to figure out the front from the back when sewing?  That's a young persons game.  And since I'm apparently old enough to be a grandma now, I guess I can also admit that I cannot see like I used to!

It started with a trial whale and then a massive cutting effort:

A LOT of pieces in each whale, but I've done some of Elizabeth Hartman's patterns before, so I was ready.  She does a great job of writing instructions, so I knew, once I successfully completed the first trial whale, that I'd be fine.

Mass-production (aka chain sewing) was also possible since, unlike so many projects in the recent past, each block contained only one fabric.  No matching up mixed and matched sets here, hooray!

Before I knew it, I had the left-facing whales done.

And then, after another marathon of sewing, I had the right-facing whales finished!

The actual sewing went pretty fast, but the time between sewing sessions was ridiculous.  You may remember the hubby was on vacation and we decided to have a pig roast and so there was a lot going on.

After laying these out and doing some math, I decided I needed a few more and set to sewing those.  Finally, I had a layout and Toby was helping me with borders.

It took a bit more procrastination and then, when I decided to piece the back, a few naughty words to get that sewn, but finally it was ready for the longarm.  (Having a baby shower deadline helped, too!)

The machine behaved beautifully.  The first bobbin ran out and the only reason I knew it ran out is because it got REALLY quiet!  (As the bobbin gets emptier, it knocks around more and gets noisier.  But an empty bobbin does not move...)  I was so thankful.  Though I did swirls, which take a bit to complete, not having to fuss with a finicky machine was so nice.

I auditioned a few options for binding, but decided to just use the backing fabric.  With that cut and just a few days to go, I sat right down and started sewing it on.  Toby jumped right in, but was displeased at my need to move it so much, so he stomped off to glare at me from across the room.

A label and a tumble through the dryer to remove any remaining cat hair and I had a finished quilt!

Some of these whales are a bit funky, but I was struggling to make them all play well together and all be different.  My stash is large, but when you get right down to it, not all the fabrics will work for one reason or another.  My mom and I joked that the one in the bottom left corner looks like he has pox.  And of course, since monkey pox is in the news right now, we had to joke that he has whale pox!  But the other whales seem to be willing to hang out with him, so I guess it's all good.

The back (formerly the background):

It's a pretty blue watery fabric and it looks great with all the whale colors.  But if I had used it for the background, blue whales would have gotten lost in it.  Or I would have had to use darker blues - something I don't have a ton of due to recent projects.

And a little more closeup so you can see the swirls!

They're not perfect, but hey, they're round, okay!

I dropped the quilt off on Friday afternoon - the shower was on Sunday - and was glad to check that off my list.  I wasn't invited to the shower and didn't expect to be.  Again, this was more about Tara than her daughter.

The pig roast was Saturday and when Tara and I got to chat a bit, she admitted to peeking in the bag.  I knew she would.  She was a little shocked.  She asked if I was sure that was what I wanted to do.  Of course!

I hope Taryn liked it.  Things have been a bit crazy at work lately (one of our keyholders fell down his basement stairs while taking laundry down and broke his collarbone, so we've all been pulling some extra weight in his absence) and I haven't gotten to talk to Tara about it.  Maybe tomorrow?

In other news, I made the mystery quilt bigger.  You may remember two weeks ago I sewed with my guild and got this top done:

It is 48x48" here and I wanted it a bit longer, if not overall larger.  I found this quilt on Pinterest and decided I liked those large triangles making the quilt longer.  The instructions weren't great, but I figured it out.

Or so I thought.

Apparently my ruler was a bit smaller or her blocks were smaller or something.  But thankfully, just two more triangles fit perfectly.  Well, not enough for side borders, but I had planned to add those as coping strips anyways, just in case my triangles went wonky, so all was well.

But then I started second-guessing myself - which way to put the triangles?

A quick text conference with my mom and we decided on the option on the right.

I thought about another border after this, but decided that binding it in blue would be just fine.  I also thought maybe that yellow border should have been grey, but I'm not so displeased that I want to rip it out.

A little backlit here, but when you use the clothesline, you get what you get.

It's 48x64" and I think this is a good sized throw.  I'll be donating it soon, but first I have to get it quilted!  (And before that I need to figure out a back.)

At least it's a finished top and I have made binding, so I can let this one rest and reclaim a project box!

In other non-quilty news, I broke my stove.  

I had a glass-top that was probably 25 years old.  It still worked great, but I cracked the glass top on Tuesday.  (It still worked great on Wednesday when I needed it, but you know, adulting means I should probably replace it before it gets worse?!)

Wednesday we went looking and were l pleased to find a replacement (fairly basic, but that's all I wanted) available for delivery already on Friday.  Due to work keeping me from home, this baby arrived on Saturday.

We had a little adventure with delivery and setup, but what's a new appliance without a problem, right?

Here's to hoping it bakes true like its predecessor.  I need to still be able to make those famous cheesecakes!

And with that, it's time for my lunch.  (Nothing to cook for that, but that's okay.)

Happy quilting!

Katie